1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telephone answering systems, and in particular to an automatic telephone message interception system which intercepts an incoming telephone call and connects the call to an information storage device at the location of the telephone instrument without causing the telephone instrument to ring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various systems are presently in existence which are adapted to be connected to a telephone instrument for automatically answering telephone calls. For example, telephone answering systems exist which will play a recorded message when a call is received and permit the recording of a message from the caller. These systems, which are usually tape recording devices, as well as others which are presently in existence, however, do not permit an incoming call to be intercepted without causing the telephone instrument to which they are connected to ring.
Under certain circumstances, for example, during the polling of individuals by telephone in an opinion survey in which information is collected by retrieving data placed by an individual in a storage device, such as a tape recorder, connected to the individual's telephone, it may be desirable to collect data from such individuals at various times during the day or night. Collection of data during the night is generally precluded at present due to the fact that the data cannot be retrieved from the storage device connected to the individual's telephone without causing the telephone to ring, thereby disturbing the individual. Collection of data during the day also may, for the same reason, disturb an individual, although to a lesser extent than collection during the night. The same problem also exists in cable television systems, where it may be desired to transmit information to an information storage device connected to a subscriber's telephone as well as to retrieve information.
The need thus exists for a telephone answering system which will permit the transmission and collection of information to and from an information storage device connected to a telephone instrument without causing the instrument to ring and without interfering with the ordinary use of the telephone instrument.